Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in obese children and co-existing liver diseases

Objective: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children increased parallel to the increment of childhood obesity. Also, NAFLD may be the presenting feature of different liver diseases in non-obese children. We aimed to determine whether there were co-existing liver diseases in overweight and obese children with NAFLD. Material and Methods: Pediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic records of obese and overweight patients, aged between 5-18 years, were retrospectively reviewed. Seventy patients who had liver steatosis on ultrasonography, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were higher than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal were recruited to the study. The demographic findings, laboratory tests for infectious, metabolic, and autoimmune causes, abdominal ultrasonography and liver biopsy findings of patients were recorded. Results: At presentation, 94.2% of the patients (n: 66) had mild transaminase elevation. All patients were negative for viral hepatitis, anti-tissue transglutaminase immunoglobulin (Ig) A, anti-liver-kidney-microsome type 1 and anti-smooth muscle antibody. They had normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), ceruloplasmin, and total IgG levels. Only one patient with low alpha-1 antitrypsin levels had heterozygotes of the PiMZ phenotype. Three (4.3%) patients had antinuclear antibody (ANA) positivity. 44.7% of patients were given ursodeoxycholic acid treatment. On follow-up, normalization of ALT was achieved in 31 (44.2%) patients at mean 6.1±4.6 (2-19) months, but no relation was found between normalization and ursodeoxycholic acid treatment. A patient with ANA positivity had increased ALT, ESR, CRP, IgG levels and ANA titers on follow-up, and she was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis with the support of liver biopsy. Under prednisolone and azathioprine treatment, ESR and IgG levels were normalized, ALT and ANA titers decreased. Conclusion: Other causes of chronic hepatitis should be screened in obesity-related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and the development of autoimmune hepatitis should be kept in mind in the presence of ANA